Monday, 29 July 2013

Now I am about to talk about a brand I hold very close to my
heart (and for probably one of the stupidest reasons). While I was living in
Switzerland it would be fun on the days when I had little to do, to go to the
supermarket and check out the weird and wonderful things I could get. Of course
living on a student budget didn’t exactly allow for splurges, and there was
this brand, terrible advertising which limited itself directly to kids but upon
further research with rave reviews.

Essence.

Essence is a German cosmetics brand that is in fact the
number one make up brand in Europe (true fact!) …And boy is its cosmetics
CCCheap.

I spent hours upon hours of bored days browsing the essence
lines because it meant I was able to experiment with all those little make-up
trends and fads without the mass whole in my wallet – and from there many
memories were born (sigh).

Anyway, got back to Aus and discovered it is here and if
possible at all, around the same price range! So, I can’t really help myself
but buy something when I come across it.

Last week I saw in good ol’ target (tarjay) a new range
called 50’s girl reloaded which is clear knock off of the MAC Hey, Sailor! 2012
range but with a navy and gold instead of a navy and white focus.

I picked up this eye shadow palette (03 COME ON BOARD
CAPTAIN!) because on swatching the gold my pupils probably dilated like 90%, I
just fell in love.

So the gold side I’d probably call a muted, antique almost
dirty gold but weirdly still warm with multifaceted very fine milled shimmer.
None of the photos really do it justice for its “antiqueness” if that’s what
you could call it. The other thing I noticed about this shade is its texture,
for a $5 eye shadow set, my gosh that gold is amazing! It is a fine powder with
a creamy element to it and oh so soft.

My issue that once a powder is soft it usually means
creasing but with my Clinique _____ eye base in 10 Canvas, the shadow lasted
around 9 hours without any real noticeable wear.

The blue shade is a true navy with blue fine milled shimmer.
I can’t rave about it as much as the gold as, to be honest, it isn’t as good.
Don’t get me wrong it is still a pretty good formula but it’s a tad (just a
tad) chalkier and that results in a struggle to get an even swatch of colour.

Pro’s

-Good formula overall – especially for the
ridiculously good price

-For some reason the antique gold shade just
makes me want to sail into its colourful goodness

-Cute packaging

-No wastage on a crappy eye shadow applicator

-Decent sized mirror for application

Con’s

-Gold is not very buildable – your first and
second swatch is pretty much it

-Blue is buildable but can be a tad uneven in
application

-I’m a bit concerned they might depot themselves
– the shadows don’t exactly look secure in there. Will just have to keep safe a
sound in the makeup drawer.

-A couple more shades are needed to really create
a look with this palette.

Overall I don’t think there is any harm in trying this
palette out, it’s so cheap and soooo much better than any of the permanent
essence shadow lines and it’s just so damn cute!

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

So I know this another Rimmel review and you’re all
probably thinking, wow, this chick likes Rimmel she should rename her blog
Rimmel, if there was ever a love story like Romeo & Juliet it’s this girl
& Rimmel - but really, it’s just because they’ve had so many products
released in Australia in the last few weeks that have been put on pedestals in
the blogosphere, so naturally when I see them in the shops, I freak out!

Now one product that caught my eye is the Wake Me Up concealer.
I don’t really know what it is but I have been obsessed with concealers this
year and when I read about them I was like, must.find.now! Unfortunately it
was not available anywhere! Like we’re talking the display was there but no
stock put in, or the illuminators were where the concealers should have been
(the ultimate tease right?!). Anyway, I was in Coles (bless them) and I found
it!

So here are some swatches if you’re anything like me and
have been itching to find the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer in Australia.

With flash - true to colour

Without flash (its a different background - don't worry its not a washout contrast!

With flash

This photo was the only one I could get to shoe at least a little, the blended concealer - left of the swatch

blended with no other make-up on

After a day wearing Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer - you can see the shimmer in the concealer here

After a day wearing Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer

Perspectives

I got the shade ivory on a whim as there are no testers
available in the supermarket, so I got the lightest colour I could to be safe (always
best to have a lighter shade for under the eye) and I must say, it’s a pretty
good go-to concealer.

I would say that it’s a medium coverage concealer at most
and can’t really be built up too much because of its thin consistency. It’s more
like a liquid than a cream which is great for blending – as you can see in the
photo above it virtually sinks into the skin – but isn’t so great for
significant coverage. On the plus side, it feels light on the skin and is not
cakey at all! So if you want that not wearing make-up feel, Wake Me Up
concealer is most likely for you

The concealer has really fine shimmer in there like the
rest of the range so I wouldn’t recommend using it for blemishes as it’ll just
highlight those things right up. For under the eye though, it is pretty damn
good. Granted, I don’t really have very dark circles under my eyes, but for the
darkness I do have it suits perfectly.

Unfortunately, the shade range leaves a little to be
desired. I got the lightest shade available in Coles and significantly hope if
its released anywhere else there will be more colours because anybody with a
paler skin tone is probably going to have no use with this concealer.

To put it simply, as far as comfort goes, this puppy is
fantastic relative to many other concealers I have tried, but if you’re looking
for a highly pigmented concealer for really dark under eye concealers I’d
probably have to recommend something else (perhaps the Covergirl and Olay Simply Ageless Corrector if you’re
looking for a similar price range). I find the days that I am looking really
tired I just use a pink dark spot corrector (loving the Priceline brand Models
Prefer one at the moment) with the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer on top and that
works a treat.

Worth the hype? In writing it down, I’m not really
convinced; but despite that it’s probably not the best concealer in my
collection, for some reason I keep reaching for it every day and that’s got to
be worth something right???

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

So I finally decided to buy myself a couple colours of the Rimmel ScandalEyes waterproof kohl kajal eye liners last week because I'd read so much about how absolutely amazing they are. Gotta say, I was a tad skeptical, I mean its a pencil liner, how amazing could it possibly be?

So after using them both they didn't exactly blow my mind (now a pencil liner that magically made my eyes double their size would) but they're still preeetty damn good.

The fuss around them is their creaminess and the range of colours. They come in Australia a remarkable amount of shades from what I have seen:

This range is actually really hard to find in "drugstore" brands to be honest (someone seriously bring on the Nars Barrow Street eye liner dupe...please?! anyone?!).

I bought as you can see below in the photos, 008 light blue and 004 taupe. If I hadn't already purchased a MaxFactor by Ellen Betrix eyeliner in 090 Natural Glaze while living in Switzerland I probably would have been frothing at the mouth to get my hands on the nude colour (sadly I'm not over-exaggerating).

This image is far closer to the real colouring of the shades than above

004 Taupe

004 Taupe (wish flash)

004 Taupe (without flash)

004 Taupe (with flash and high contrast - gives you an idea of the level of pigmentation you're going to get)

Okay, so I'll start with the colour that is essentially the new love of my life, 004 Taupe). My God is this colour versatile. I have just really started working in an office environment where I am finding black/brown liner is just a tad too harsh for everyday. This colour is the perfect in-between: more than nothing but less than the "yeah I'm wearing eyeliner what you gonna do about it" look. It lines the eyes and makes it look like there is a natural depth around them, its so hard to explain, but its worth a try, especially if you have a light or light-olive skin tone and don't want to overdo the eyes.

Second reason I think this colour is fan-bloody-tastic is because I was blessed with the genetics of very small eyes. Putting dark liner on the bottom lash-line to frame the eyes makes them smaller but the look is always unfinished if there's nothing at the bottom and my lids are done...the fix? 004 Taupe!!!!! its enough colour to frame my lower lash-line but not at the expense of the size of my eyes.

As a side note, there is a small amount of barely visible silver shimmer in the taupe shade, but we're talking not enough to be a deal breaker for those wanting a cream and a pleasant surprise for those who were indifferent.

008 Light Blue

I got this shade purely out of curiosity, a cool sky blue non-shimmer eyeliner interested me and it didn't disappoint either. It does have a bit of a chalky look to it but that is just something that comes with the territory of choosing that shade, and believe me, the formula does not reflect that chalky look.

When blended into the inner corner of the eye I found this colour to be a fantastic shimmer-free highlighter/brightener. Also, I had an absolute ball using it as a base for other colours. Some of the lighter eyeliners I have that just don't translate onto the skin (I'm looking at you Bourjois Regard Effect Violet Rosé) were actually made into highly visible pigmented products when layered over the eyeliner. So that's an option too if you'd like to try a liner that's not quite as harsh as white but still has a bit of a highlight effect.

Pros:

- Creamy texture
- Long-lasting and stays put (still trying to rub it off my hand from the swatch... It's not gonna budge until I get out the make-up wipes)
- Colour range is fantastic
- So super affordable for the quality

Cons (and its a stretch):

- The packaging is a bit meh - it feels a little flimsy and the clear id looks cheap
- Concerned the creaminess might become an issue during the warmer months for application, but we'll just have to see won't we J

The entire Rimmel range goes on sale for 1/2 price at Priceline tomorrow so skip your morning coffee and grab a shade to try, you won't regret it.